Mobile Suit Gundam had the venerable Zaku II for cannon fodder. Mobile Suit Gundam Wing had the Zaku's leaner and more explode-y cousin, the Leo.

The Robot Spirit release of the OZ-06MS Leo comes in the standard Robot Spirits package, but the contents are a little light. The Leo Option Set was released as a standalone package of guns and goodies to supplement the lean base package.

The Leo is impressively articulated as per the Robot Spirits line. The base figure does not feature any head or neck articulation, but everything else moves as it should. The shoulders , thighs, and back feature sneaky hard points compatible with many accessories from previously released Robot Spirits figures.

Thanks to a codpiece that features articulated skit flaps as well as a swiveling center part, the Leo has great freedom in its legs and can almost pass the Iron Man poster pose test.

The butt thrusters are even movable! Also, butt thrusters.

The base Leo figure features three sets of hands: ferocious fists...

...generic grabbing hands...

...and terrific trigger hands!

Bandai also played a little trick with the elbows that simplifies them while still allowing enough motion for dynamic poses. Instead of a double joint, the elbows feature a single joint and the elbow armor is molded to the forearm at an angle. The arms cannot be posed perfectly straight, but can bend to more than a right angle with only a single joint. I think it's worth the tradeoff.

The Leo features only one accessory, a 105mm rifle. For such an ineffective weapon the 105mm looks awesome. That chunky ammo drum speaks to how much useless fire a Leo can lay down.

The rifle features a grab handle on top for two-handed action. As if aiming was going to improve a Leo's chances of survival.

The matte green color and 'realistic' styling of the machinegun make for a convincing military grunt robot. The Leo looks and feels like a barebones production machine designed to be sent to die by the hundreds.

The Leo can even pull off a nice kneeling firing pose. The lack of head articulation, while canon, does make some poses seem a bit awkward. Still, the Leo is a solid little package for anyone who likes green robots or wants some fodder to feed to their Wing Gundam hero mecha toys.

The Leo Option Set, however, is anything but lean. A pile of parts adds all sorts of variety and fun to the mix. Included in the set are a bazooka, a dober gun, a set of shoulder armor with integrated beam cannons, a large shoulder mounted shield, two beam sabers with removable blades, a swappable articulated head, and two splayed hands.

To install the articulated head, we first need to remove the fixed head from our Leo... with the help of another Leo.

Underneath the fixed head is a ball that the new articulated head fits onto.

The movable head features nice articulation since the main head part is separate from the chin part. I have mixed feelings on Bandai's making the articulated head an Option Set part. On one hand, the base figure is accurate to the show with no neck joint. On the other hand, not having any head movement makes the base figure look a bit awkward, even if it is canon. Even if all the other weapons were still in an Option Set, I would have rather seen the base Leo come with both heads so the buyer could chose posable or not.

Next we will convert a Leo into an Early Type using the large shield. The existing shoulder armor comes off, and the mount for the big round shield clips on. Note that for an accurate Early Type the other shoulder armor should also be removed, which I forgot. Sorry.

The Early Type shield is ball jointed and looks solid.

Stored under the shield are two beams saber hilts.

Because, you know, a Leo should really be used for close combat.

The splayed hand and the beam saber pair well together. The lean sculpt of the Leo allows for a great dynamic look while retaining a chunky, utilitarian feel.

What could go wrong?

Oh, that...

The fearsome dober gun attaches to the shoulder in the same way as the Early Type shield.

The dober gun features a movable handle for the Leo to grip to swing around its firepower. Equipping a Leo with a dober gun hearkens back to the Leo's origin as a dumbed down version of the Tallgeese for disposable pilots.

I think the dober gun and the Early Type shield make a great pairing. Sort of a Tallgeese Light.

Next up we can make a Cannon Type Leo using the beam cannon shoulders. They mount in the same way as the previous accessories, but I find that the fit between the armor and the shoulder clips is a bit loose.

The Cannon Type looks great. The beam turrets swivel and the gun barrels elevate. They are dinky little guns, but the heavy shoulder armor adds some beefiness up top.

Last is the bazooka, which features a regular trigger handle and a grab handle much like the rifle.

The bazooka features a little bit of painted detail, but it is all really subtle. It looks the part of a heavy weapon and the Leo poses well with it over the shoulder.

A holder part can be fitted to one of the hard points on the back to stow the bazooka for when things require a more subtle approach.

Now that we have lots of Leos and lots of weapons floating around, my dream of a dual machinegun Leo can be fulfilled. Sadly, it still would not be able to kill anything.

In order to make the most of the Option Set, I purchased three Leos. It's a big commitment, but I love having a little squad of uniquely equipped green bots tooling around my display. They've almost got a Charlies's Angels thing going on. The Robot Spirits Leo can be purchased for around $35 from most retailers. It's a lean, no frills package, but it's a solid figure of an underappreciated grunt mecha that's simple enough to get into all kinds of trouble. The Option Set can be had for around $25, and is a regular release, not a difficult to find web exclusive. Some people might argue that all of the weapons should have just been included with the figure, but I disagree. I like having the generic grunt as its own package, so that people who are not big on accessories or just need some green filler for their Wing Gundam displays can grab one on the cheap. Then the rest of us filthy green mecha lovers can go all the way and pick up the goodies set. Grabbing a couple Leos and the Option Set is almost like getting a building toy, with the ability to mix and match parts to make whatever variant you like. Green grunts with lots of guns. I dig it.

Comments

That shot of the three variously-equipped Leos together is great. Is it based on an illustration or anything? The composition looks really familiar. Though... I may just be thinking of this scene, or possibly this unrelated image >_<

I think the not-quite-straight elbow joints on the Leo are actually accurate to the original design. If you check out the line art, it appears that the forearms are curved forward and slightly inwards when held in a neutral pose. The RD figure is obsessively devoted to replicating that original design (thus the head being a big solid chunk melting into its mounting plate), so I suspect they interpreted that angle of the arm from the line art, and designed the joint to take advantage of it.

Given how thorough this review is, I'm surprised that when you ran down the hand options you didn't mention that, while it comes with gun-handle-holding fists for both sides, the more open handle-grabbing hand comes only in a left variety. This is a little frustrating when it comes to things like the ambidextrous design of the Dobergun and shield (the Dobergun mount and shoulder clamp come apart to allow for it to be reassembled in a left-side configuration).
It also comes into play if you want the Leo to hold anything other than its own weapons, as the left-side grabbler hand is molded with the fingers separate from the thumb - and therefore can hold things like a Zaku machine gun - but the regular trigger hands are molded as a closed block with a rectangular slot through it, and can only hold weapons with slender handles like those Katoki favors.

Speaking of things that annoy me way more than is reasonable:
Did you find that your Leo had some unsightly marks where the parts were clipped from their molding sprues? On mine, there was some sinking around the sprue scars on many of the parts that are big chunks of PVC, and several hard plastic parts had significant whitening where they were clipped, most notably the ankle armor and the green bands that clip onto the shoulders. I've seen this on RD figures before, the marks of mass production, but even on dark figures like the Falke it was never quite as ugly and obvious as it is on my Leo.

I still like the figure... it just has lots of tiny flaws that, when added up, prevent me from being really excited about it.

The power might be subconsciously inspired, but I just wanted to fit everyone in the frame. The problem with the hands did not occur to me because I don't really mix parts, but I can see how that would be annoying. I think the sprue marks did actually stick out to me when I first opened the figures, but they're all just do green I hardly notice now. The elbow thing is kinda funny, tho. Line art be crazy.

Nice review. I admire your dedication to the design by buying a whole squad of Leos.

Personally, I'm not too hung up on the option parts given that they're not Web Exclusive, but the base figure really should have come with the shield and beam saber while the Option Set would have one of the beam rifles.

The vanilla version is like one of the most spartan grunt RS releases ever.

OH MAN, I'm droolin'! Always loved those poor explodable grunts. I always wana compare them to the Zaku, but I think you put it best: "Leaner and more explode-y cousin." These poor suckers blew up so easily and without much time to really do anything that it's no wonder that they've been mostly ignored all this time. I managed to snag three of the classic MSiA ones (and a blue and purple one) but I am GEEKED for this version! Kinda sucks I need to get that extras set, but at least it looks totally worth it. You got me wanting to get three of these as well...